Schiedam, The Netherlands. 11 November 2019.
Dutch clean energy conglomerate Koolen Industries has invested 4 million euros in Dutch ammonia energy storage company Proton Ventures.
Proton Ventures designs and builds pressurized and cooled ammonia storage facilities, as well as small scale ammonia production facilities called NFUEL units.
“Proton Ventures’ unique and patented technologies enable the production of ammonia using clean energy sources. Ammonia is an ideal storage solution for solar power plants and wind farms as it is particularly well suited to store and transport large amounts of energy in efficient ways. This makes it a perfect fit for Koolen Industries as we continue to push the global transition to clean energy,” said Kees Koolen, CEO, Koolen Industries.
Proton Ventures is currently involved in many renewable energy storage projects, which store clean energy in ammonia/NFUEL. The company has large scale Ammonia storage projects operating in Estonia and Bulgaria. The investment by Koolen Industries will help speed up Proton Ventures’ roll-out of more NFUEL-units around the world.
“It is as important to us that Koolen Industries is present and active across the entire energy chain: from clean energy generation and storage, to the transportation and delivery of energy to the end customer. This creates great opportunities for ongoing cooperation and opens doors for us to bigger projects,” said Hans Vrijenhoef, CEO, Proton Ventures.
NFUEL for large scale energy storage
“Alongside our lithium- and flow battery capabilities, ammonia adds value to our portfolio, especially with regards to clean energy storage at large scale. This form of energy is relatively cheap, and it is easy to transport and import into the Netherlands, or indeed to into other markets,” said Gerben Hilboldt, Chief Technology Officer, Koolen Industries.
“In principle, liquified ammonia contains more hydrogen per liter than conventional liquified hydrogen and it is easier to store and transport, which reduces the cost and thus makes imported clean energy affordable,” said Vrijenhoef.
With this form of energy storage, it is possible to store 25 times more energy by volume than even the most energy dense lithium batteries currently on the market.
How NFUEL works
Traditionally, ammonia is made for the fertiliser industry (from bottom left to top right in the diagram below), but it is an incredibly flexible energy storage solution.
With the global transition to clean energy, we see this moving from top left to bottom right. Solar and wind energy will be used as raw material for the production of ammonia.
This ammonia can be used as fuel (ships and freight traffic) or can be cracked back to energy.
About Proton Ventures
Proton Ventures is a technology company that works to make the global energy transition a reality. The company specialises in ammonia related technologies and products, including storage concepts for chemical and liquid energy carriers. Proton Ventures designs and builds pressurised and cooled ammonia storage facilities, as well as small scale ammonia factories called NFUEL units.
About Koolen Industries
The mission of Koolen Industries is to enable everyone to contribute to the energy transition. By using clean energy from wind and the sun, and making sure it is available whenever you need it, they will provide consumers with an autonomous life, independent of the grid.
Koolen Industries builds and invests in a group of companies that together will make sure renewable energy will always be available, whenever and wherever it is needed. Reliable and safe. Made possible by ingenious software.
Earlier this year Koolen Industries announced investments in Super B (lithium batteries), Floading Energy (charging infrastructure), Skoon Energy (cloud platform for renting mobile energy storage and mobile energy storage containers), Elestor (flow batteries) and Hardt Hyperloop (hyperloop technology). Koolen Industries also acquired BonGo Solar (solar panel installations) in October.